


Who's There?

by darlingdearestdead



Series: Nights at Pop's [3]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual Jughead Jones, F/M, First Kiss, Party Games, Seven Minutes In Heaven, Spin the Bottle, but he likes to kiss, he loves Betty who is he kidding, lowkey Cheryl is a lesbian and crushing on Veronica, not aromantic, set during 1.01, sue him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-03-05
Packaged: 2018-09-28 12:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10100807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darlingdearestdead/pseuds/darlingdearestdead
Summary: “Do you want to make Archie jealous?” He repeated, slowly and painfully.“I heard you.” She said. “But what do you mean?”“Don’t you know how this game works Bets?” He asked, lowering his voice. “I’m meant to have ravished you already.”AU- Canon Divergence. Set during 1.01. Cheryl chooses Betty to go into the closet for Seven Minutes in Heaven, and Jughead just happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I thought of this and couldn't help but write it. I hope you enjoy. As always, I apologise for any mistakes as no one checks these but me. Thanks for reading!

Jughead must’ve woken up in an alternative reality, or somehow become a different person overnight, because he could think of no other reason why he was pushing his way through the sweaty crowds of Cheryl Blossom’s party.

Or he could think of approximately one other reason: his unreliable, self-centred, dramatic, annoyingly red-headed, excuse for a best friend. Archie Andrews.

He’d been trying to work on his novel, downing cups of black coffee in the dim light of Pop’s like he often did when he was struggling, but the words weren’t coming. His work was stagnating, because Jughead himself didn’t know what direction to go. Everything seemed to come back to July 4th weekend, the murder, Archie’s weird behaviour, their fallout. And Jughead found himself writing more about the questions than the answers, primarily because he had none, and something within him snapped. He knew where Archie was, attending a nauseatingly stereotypical party with the girl next door, Betty Cooper, and, as rumour had it, the new woman in town, Veronica Lodge.

Whilst Jughead was entirely uninterested in watching whatever romantic drama was sure to be occurring, he didn’t know anything of the new girl but knew Betty deserved better, he couldn’t find his focus until he talked to Archie. It was stubbornness that had kept him away so long, the desire to see the other boy come to him first, to appear aloof and unaffected by it, but his curiosity won over. He wanted to talk to Archie, he was sick of sitting alone, and he wanted to do it now.

Therefore, with an abundance of dread and a heavy heart, Jughead found himself making his way through the overcrowded rooms in search of his friend. He was hoping he could pull the redhead out of whatever insignificant jumble he was mixed in, and remind him of their own problems, and the very real threats and secrets that engulfed their town.

Unfortunately, or fortunately as some may see it, his arrival in their midst coincided perfectly with the scheme of the vicious vixen, otherwise known as Cheryl Blossom.

{}

Cheryl was completely fascinated with the new girl and, therefore, had decided she needed to destroy her. Veronica Lodge thought she could come in with her perfect eyebrows, cocky attitude, and early-2000s faux lesbianism and undermine the dynasty that Cheryl had been careful cultivating for years. That was not something she was going to stand for

And she was tired, tired of living without her brother and lying to the entire town, so she wanted to have a little fun. The little love triangle she saw brewing between Betty, Veronica, and Archie proved the perfect opportunity to cause some mayhem, and to get to the raven haired girl. But to mess with Betty was entirely too easy, and Veronica was too unflappable, the best way to cause the most chaos was through Archie Andrews. The poor boy was perpetually oblivious and confused, and Cheryl relished the chance to unsettle him.  She was going to make him realise things about himself he hadn’t known, and that was going to do the dirty work for her.

“We’re going old school tonight.” She called out. “Seven minutes in heaven.” Cheryl could sense Betty’s discomfort, and a feline smile graced her features. “Who wants to tryst in the closet of love first?” She paused for effect. “My votes B for Betty. Anyone care to second it?”

Betty seemed surprised, shifting awkwardly in her seat. “I don’t think-“

“Yeah!” Reggie cried out in his typical, boorish manner, as if he was auditioning for the role of frat guy. “I hear the quietest ones are always the wildest.”

Betty crossed her ankles prettily, and the redhead girl almost wanted to laugh at how prim and proper she appeared. “This is-“

“Shush.” Cheryl interrupted. “You don’t want to live up to the Cooper stereotype do you?”

“Cheryl.” Archie said warningly, and Veronica was glaring at her.

“You can be a bad girl for once.” Cheryl ignored the reprimands, leaning down to spin the bottle. The whole room seemed to be holding its breath as the bottle came lazily to a halt pointing at the door, where a very confused Jughead had just walked in.

The entire room was staring at him, all his friends head swivelling in his direction, and Jughead just gave them all a cool look. “Am I interrupting something?”

“No.” Cheryl was practically glowing, if she’d try to plan this it wouldn’t have gone any better, and from the looks of her victims, it was going to cause the exact amount of damage she’d been after. “You have perfect timing.”

“He wasn’t even playing Cheryl.” Archie turned to their host.

Something about this riled Jughead up, that his friend thought he could speak for him, excluding him from whatever was going on, even if, in all likelihood, he wanted to be excluded. “I wasn’t aware I’d spoken Andrews?”

There was palpable tension in the air, and Archie had turned to look at him with a guilt, tinged with a little hurt, etched across his face.

“Let’s just leave it.” Betty mumbled, fiddling with her hands in her lap.

“That’s not how the game works Cooper.” Cheryl said, stalking around the sofa until she was right beside the blonde. She bent down, stroking a hand on the loose, golden hair, and lowering her voice to a seductive whisper. “House rules say, if you don’t want Jughead, the hostess gets a turn.”

“Hot.” Reggie said.

Betty lowered her gaze, and then looked up, locking eyes with Jughead who still stood on the threshold of the room. As soon as he spotted the bottle, and its uncanny aim towards him, he managed to piece together what was happening. He gave her a smile which he hoped was at least semi-reassuring.

“Fine.” The blonde visibly steeled herself, before shrugging off the other girl and standing. “Come on Jughead. Let’s go.”

And with that, Jughead found himself in a situation he’d never thought possible, stuck in a closet in the Blossom mansion with Betty Cooper, with the expectation that they’d make out.

{}

“I wasn’t aware that I’d wandered onto the set of every teen romcom ever.” Jughead said as the door was locked behind them.

Betty laughed, relieved that the tension of the quiet closet was broken a little. “Cheryl Blossom is the devil.”

“I imagine the seventh circle of hell is a Blossom party.”

“More like the second circle.” She said, and he shot her a confused, but appreciative look. “Lust.” She offered as an explanation, pleased to see how it made him smile. “Or even seven, treachery.”

“Maybe it’s all nine of them.” He offered, and it was her turn to smile up at him. He felt himself unexpectedly affected by that, the easy way she offered it to him, the calm flow of their conversation. Sometimes he forgot just how much Betty Cooper could get under his skin, just with a simple smile.

“No offence Juggy, but this isn’t really your scene. Why are you here?”

He shrugged. “I was looking for Archie. I should’ve known my instinct to stay away was correct.”

“Thanks, anyway.” She seemed slightly embarrassed, and Jughead gave her a confused look that forced her to clarify. “For rescuing me.”

“Any time. I’m a natural born hero.”

She snorted. “This is much better than being mauled by Cheryl.”

“I’m flattered.” Jughead deadpanned.

“How long do you think they’ll be? Do we just have to wait in here?”

“Wait.” He nodded and then, something must’ve possessed him, because he found himself saying. “Or…”

Betty shot him a curious look. “Or?”

“Or.” He paused. “Do you want to make Archie jealous?” The worlds tumbled out of him before he really realised what he was saying, or how unethical this was, but her eyes on his were making him speak without thinking. He wanted to make her happy, and this was this first thing he thought of. And, some small part within him, wanted to know what it would be like.

 “What?” She replied, furrowing her brow and looking genuinely confused.

“Do you want to make Archie jealous?” He repeated, slowly and painfully.

“I heard you.” She said. “But what do you mean?”

“Don’t you know how this game works Bets?” He asked, lowering his voice. “I’m meant to have ravished you already.”

“But you’re-“

“Asexual?” He interrupted. “You know, asexual people still do have lips, and the ability to kiss” He leant in closer to her as if about to impart a deep secret, the dim light of the closet intensifying the action. “I hear sometimes they even enjoy it.”

She gave him a look, half-embarrassed half-amused, and sighed. “I was going to say Jughead. You’re _Jughead._ ”

“Yeah.” He replied, forgoing the joke just this once. “And you’re Betty.”

“I’m just surprised.” She said, and he knew that, could see it in the way she searched his face for answers that he didn’t have. The truth was, Jughead was surprised with himself. None of this was the type of thing he normally did, deciding to apologise first, going to teen parties, getting trapped in a closet with a pretty girl, wanting to kiss said girl.

It wasn’t that she was beautiful, though she was with her hair around her ears and rumpled pink dress, but it was the way she looked at him. Different from Archie, who avoided his gaze shamefully now, or any of the other people who filled their school, but softer and with trust. She laughed at his jokes but took him seriously too. There were times with her, occasionally, when he didn’t always reach for the nearest sarcastic jibe.

There were as close to friends as he’d ever got, outside of Archie, someone he didn’t go to often but, staring at her in this cramped space, he was realising he should. It was as if two different version of her were looking at him, the little girl he’d once known who baked a whole batch of cookies to hand out to their class and who told him later she’d baked dirt into Reggie Mantel’s one for calling Jughead a freak, and the teenager in front of him, who let him talk about the things he loved without getting bored, because she herself understood the enthusiasm, and even if their time together was few and far between, never avoided him in the corridors or looked at him with pity or disdain.

“I didn’t even know you’d ever kissed anyone.” Betty continued, following the train of thought Jughead had forgotten she’d began.

“You’d be surprised.” He replied, with only a hint of sarcasm as it wasn’t entirely true. In his short life he’d kissed approximately two people, as a slightly unwilling a terrified eight year old he’d received a chaste kiss from Ethel Muggs and bizarrely had a brief unexperienced make out session with Melody Valentine when they were thirteen, and none of this exactly qualified him as experienced. But he wasn’t about to admit that, not when he was already so unsure about what he was doing.

The way she looked at him, he could see the cogs turning as she thought through what he was saying, but he had no way of knowing what answer she was leaning towards. Betty had an unusually expressive face, big eyes and animated features, but he couldn’t always tell what exact emotion she was trying to express.

“Or we could just forget I said anything.” He said, feeling all his insecurities rush forward in the silence. Who was he kidding? This was Betty Cooper, she was Archie’s girl next door, and Jughead had no business pretending otherwise, even his desire cloaked in the guise of something else was laughable.

But then she interrupted him. “No. Give me a second.”

It seemed to him that they noticed at the exact same time just how close they were standing, closer than they ever had before, and Jughead saw the way her eyes darted down to his lips just as his darted down to hers.

She took a breath. “Okay.”

“Really?” He asked, taken aback by her agreement. Tentatively, he reached up to cup her face. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. Kiss me.” She said softly, shutting her eyes as she waited.

Their first kiss was soft, tender and short, and as Jughead pulled away he could feel the ghost of a smile beginning to form on her lips. “This okay?”

“Yes, Juggy.” She was just slightly exasperated, but in an affection way, and she must’ve been a little impatient because she reached upwards to tug him back towards her. The kiss was deeper this time, their mouths opening and moving together, the introduction of tongue, and she slipped a hand just underneath his beanie to play with the tufts of black hair that lay there.

It was startling to Jughead how much he enjoyed it, how he couldn’t help think he wouldn’t mind doing it again, a few times, maybe even on a regular basis. He had no desire to go any further, he’d known that already, but kissing was nice. He liked the soft noise she made, just once, when he leant in even more and pulled her tight against him, liked the taste of her lips, a mixture of lip gloss and the natural flavor of her own self, and how close he felt he was to her.

The two of them appeared to have forgotten the whole purpose of the kiss, or their location, as they lost themselves to it. His hands had migrated from her head to her waist, and hers still lingered in the hair she’d always wondered about, they were too entangled to jump apart when the door was abruptly swung open.

“Times up!” Cheryl cried, looking triumphant about the compromising position they’d been found him.

Jughead pulled away from Betty, shoving his hands in his pockets awkwardly, seeing out of the corner of his eye Betty blushing but trying to act determinedly nonchalant.

“It’s a shame.” Cheryl continued, looking between them. “You looked like you were having a lot of fun.”

And, even though it had been part of the plan, Jughead felt guilty when he looked up and caught Archie’s eye. The redhead stared at him with a mixture of horror and confusion, he’d genuinely believed there was no chance his two best friends were doing anything, and stood up as if about to say something.

Jughead fled the room, shoving past the rest of the guests, leaving behind two very confused teenagers in his wake. All thoughts of confronting him about July 4th, the real reason he’d been there, fled his mind at the sight of him about to speak. He wanted to avoid whatever conversation they needed to have as long as possible. He’d always avoided girls, not just because he wasn’t sexually attracted to anyone, but because he didn’t want to deal with the drama too, teenage heartache was an eternal cliché that he’d always assumed he’d avoid.

The character he’d written for himself was a spectator, the ear that listened to all of Archie’s romantic troubles but didn’t get involved, but that night in the closet he’d given himself a rewrite. And he wasn’t sure if he was done changing the narrative, for the first time in his life, Jughead wanted to be the one that got the girl.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Please let me know what you thought, I love any and all feedback. I cant promise more one shots as quick as this but I'm hoping to have some coming. Thanks again.


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